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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Puzzle Memory

We are finding out that Baby has an amazing memory. She can remember things really well. Things that I wouldn't think a three year old would be able to remember. She recalls details of places we went, theme songs that go with different Disney princesses, people we went places with, etc.

Once we show Baby something a few times, she remembers it pretty well. For example, her puzzles. Baby likes to do puzzles. She has a couple of favorites. One is your typical alphabet puzzle where the wooden letters fit into their slots. Another is a puzzle of people in the neighborhood, like a firefighter, police officer, etc. That's a cardboard one where the pieces fit together on a board. It has 25 pieces. Her other favorite is a Mickey Mouse puzzle that she got to color herself. It's one of those felt drawings that helps you color in the lines. It has Mickey and Donald and Daisy. It doesn't have a backing; it's the most similar to an adult puzzle where there is no outline to put the pieces in. You just fit all twelve (maybe sixteen?) pieces together.

Baby couldn't do the puzzles on her own initially. Now she is a pro. However, watching her I realized that she just memorized where the pieces went. The alphabet one is easy because the letters either fit in their slots of not. With the people in the neighborhood, she doesn't fit the pieces together at first, but looks at the pictures and puts them where she remembers they are supposed to go. Same with the Mickey puzzle. She knows Mickey's head goes in the top right, and Daisy in the top left. Then their bodies, and the rest until it is done. She demanded we do these puzzles over and over with her until she knew where everything went. If we tell her to figure it out and try different pieces to see what fits, she gets very frustrated and acts out by throwing the pieces at us whining, "I can't doooo iiiitttt."

Another activity that she likes are the hidden pictures. Objects are hidden in pictures and you have to find them. She gets a kids magazine each month that has this activity in it. She doesn't like to look for the items herself, but once you show her where the hidden objects are located, she remembers for future reference. She can pull out any of her old magazines and tell you where all the objects are.

She has great recall, but I'm not sure if I should be concerned that she won't try anything out for herself first. Her personality is like this though, too. She is very cautious and will watch other people for cues on how to act in certain environments. She will follow the strong personalities and do what they do. This is great if she chose to follow the good kids. However, she much prefers to emulate the troublemakers.

Hopefully she will become more confident in what she does. In the meantime, she will watch someone else, then remember for herself.

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About Me

I am a public school teacher turned stay at home mom to three little ones. I'm just trying to figure out how to balance this thing called life and thought I would document it honestly at the same time. Please feel free to comment!